Masculinity And Femininity In James Joyce's The Dead

Masculinity and femininity are important topics of today; however, they were also important topics in the 20th century as well. Authors such as James Joyce who wrote The Dead were battling this forefront topic in 1914. Masculinity is the characterization of male qualities that are associated with men, such as aggressiveness and emotion-less attributes (Farlex). Femininity is described as the characterization of female qualities associated with females, it is essentially the nature of the female sex (Merriam-Webster). Joyce wrote in favor of masculinity that is to say at least in The Dead he did. In The Dead, Joyce provides perfect examples of this battle between masculinity and femininity—and the lack thereof of the latter.

The main character Gabriel Conroy seems to approve of female characters only as if they are background noise and only there to feed his ego—or push him further in the

She is someone who plays the piano and beautifully at that. She is a strong female-driven character and that is something we do not see from the majority of the female characters in the story. Despite the fact that she is ignored by Gabriel. Despite her being a beautiful and remarkable piano player, she is demeaned by Gabriel. He critiques her internally and discusses how she can’t play certain notes and those notes are unbearable to listen to because they are off key. You get that sense of a battle between Joyce wanting to be feminist and show that femininity; but, it is being overpowered by his masculine culture. So, on one hand you can argue the opposite; however, it does not seem to follow through on Joyce’s end and on that aspect of feminism. You notice the way Joyce seems to continue to demean these female characters, even though they are meant to be a strong female